50,000 hours 12 hours a day should translate into 11 years. Even if they want to make sure not be taken by people who stick the bulbs where they will burn 24 hours a day, they could give a five year warranty. Two year warranty? So just how much faith to they have in that lifespan?

OK other than that pretty cool.

Yeah, the LED's will probably last a good long time as long as they don't overheat.  But the unit includes a (supposedly noiseless) fan, which allows them to pump enough juice to get the lumens they need without using more LEDs.  That's fine, but fans are mechanical devices, and mechanical devices fail.  I suspect that is what's behind the measely warranty.

  At least if I take their specs at face value 900 lumens/13 watts is 70 lumens per watt, which does beat CFLs. Most LEDs are still not as efficient as CFLs, but this one could be an exception. But in any case, given the high price tag, unless your application has a very difficult to change bulb, it makes sense to wait for the next generation. I'm afraid those of us on limited budgets are better off to suffer through one more generation of CFLs, before switching.

jbailo, I would say a 100w equivalent at $90 is a lot better deal than an all-but-useless 15w equivalent at $35.

p.s.  mihan -- I think $90 for a bulb is quite expensive, and I expect that very few will sell at that price.  However, I also think that, if you think about true costs of externalities, most made goods that we get to enjoy would probably cost a lot more like that (if they didn't get to ignore the externalities).  We in the West are used to not having to pay anything like the true cost of things.  This is going to change, one way or the other.  I'm occasionally hopeful that it can be through people with the means voluntarily downscaling their consumption and buying many fewer things of much higher value and smaller footprint (such as no use of mercury, etc.).  But most of the time I am not so hopeful.

Save your community: Cut greenhouse gas emissions 5% per year.